The role of ritual in mystical experience

Sunday, 24th July, 2016 10:45
12:15

Saliha Abdelkhalek is a Ph.D student at the University of Exeter. Saliha is originally from Egypt where she gained a degree in philosophy at the American University in Cairo (2007). She then moved to Britain where she studied for an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Contemporary Philosophy and Critical Theory from Middlesex University in London (2010).

She is now studying the role of ritual in affecting mystical experience. In this talk she will describe how mystical experience discloses the nature of our non-reflective self-awareness, and how this experience discloses the very nature of existence itself. Through ritual practice and repetition the mind learns about its different states, and learns to take respite from its most habitual practice of reflective thinking and instrumental reasoning. It is this break in its habitual state that is a gateway to mystical experience, which is most commonly experienced as annihilation of thought and hence, functions as a paradigm-shifter of both knowledge and awareness of oneself. Mystical experience is not just an event in time, but changes the very experience and understanding of time itself. Therefore, it challenges and restructures our previous understanding of ourselves as time-bound beings and of being itself.

Free admission, donations welcome.
If you would like to stay for lunch please email in advance: info@chisholme.org
Tel +44 (0)1450 880 215